Regimes of Terror and Traditionally Defined Terrorist Organisations Threat to Regional Security

Introduction

Perhaps, the biggest threat to the world security in the twenty-first century is terrorism. Terrorism is a modern frightening, hurting and even cause of harm to people and property. According to Gregg (2014), terrorism is a tactic of threat or use of violence targeting government, civilians or property with the aim of creating fear and altering the status of a group. As per this definition, terrorism can be denoted as a tactic employed by a state or non-state actors for various reasons which may include changing existing social, religious, political or military order. Depending on the motive, terrorism will create fear among the people making them always to feel insecure as the threat of being attacked remains imminent. Traditionally, terrorist groups can be divided into three; left, right and ethnic-separatist. The terrorism of the left included the Marxist, Anarchist and socialist-oriented ideologies whose aims were to foment workers' revolution (Marxist), destroy the governments (Anarchist) and economic restructuring (Socialists) (Gregg, 2014, p. 37). Right-winged terrorists encompassed the fascist, racist and nationalistic terror groups that aimed to express fascist, racial and nationalistic supremacy. An example was the Ku Klux Klan that was present in the United States (Gregg, 2014, p. 37). Ethnic-separatist terrorism comprised the use of terror as a means of attaining independence from a military force or a state. An example was the Jewish Irgun in Palestine that sought autonomy from the occupying British Mandate force (Gregg, 2014, p. 37). On the other hand, regimes of terror that have emerged in the 21st century are trans-national and more generally target masses of people, governments or critical infrastructure. In fact, regimes of terror employ various tactics such as terror attacks, insurgency, internet-based propaganda, subversion, and media broadcasts with the aim of causing psychological fears which in turn undermine confidence and unity in western populations so that they can generate a false perception of being a worldwide powerful movement (Crenshaw, 2007, p. 31). Although traditional terrorist organisations caused fear and interfered with security on individuals, regions, and state the regimes of terror present more trenchant threat to regional security because they have transnational networks and employ a wide array of tactics aimed at undermining regional unity.

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Overview of Traditionally Defined Terrorist Organisations and Impact on Security

To understand how the impact of the traditional terrorist organisations on security, one needs to look at how such groups were organised and executed their goals. To achieve this goal, one of the left wing traditional terror groups is examined. The chosen group is the Argentinean Montoneros. Monteneros was a guerrilla group in Argentina that erupted and ended in the 1970s. It was an armed struggle by the members mainly followers of General Juan Peron. The group consisted of about 25,000 members who were anti-imperialist populist ideology. They were in favour of the Marxist ideas of Fidel Castro of Cuba (James, 1976, p. 273).

Under the leadership of Peron, Monteneros staged terror campaigns to destabilise the then pro-American government that was against Peron's ideas of socialism. To attain their goal, the Peronists kidnapped and executed people. For example, they kidnapped and executed Pedro Aramburu, a former Argentinean president hoping that such an act would raise their revolutionist voice (James, 1976, p. 273). Another tactic they employed was ransoming where they seized executives especially from multinational corporations and demanded payment to let them free (James, 1976, p. 276). However, the Peronists were unique as they used the ransom money in charitable work where they bought food and clothing for the poor. To enhance the campaigns, the group worked with the Cuban president Castro as well as the Spanish Socialist Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization. This cooperation allowed the Peronists to enhance their power and won the 1973 election where their preferred candidate Hector Campora became the president. The victory allowed the group's general Peron to return from exile and it was clear that the group would be more powerful. The brave members of the group emerged nationally and enjoyed a semi-official status courtesy of Campora's leadership. However, the group witnessed feuds as the right-wing Peronists took a backdrop when the left-wing Monteneros advocated for a national revolution. The two warring sides ended up fighting in Peron's homecoming ceremony in 1973 where about 13 people died, and several others injured. The rift furthered when the Monteneros were charged with planning to assassinate president Campora. President Campora began to differ with the group.

In 1974, president Campora died, and the Monteneros decided to proceed with a full revolution under a slogan "authentic Peronism." They commenced a military operation against the government. The group ousted President Isabel Peron in 1976 and replaced him with Junta. But before then, the Monteneros had carried out much of terror activities in the country. In 1974, the guerrillas executed a former foreign minister. In September the same year, they abducted two rich brothers and were paid $60 million to release them (James, 1976, p. 277). Following the successful ransom, the group changed its slogan to "taxing the rich." They were on a mission to amass wealth for undertaking their revolution. For example, part of the wealth was used to bomb United States installations throughout the country. They also killed the executives of General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford who were operating in the country. In 1975, the group sank the Argentine naval ship which had a value of about $70 million (James, 1976, p. 278)

Following the widespread and serious executions by the Monteneros army, an Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance was formed to fight the guerrillas. Consequently, thousands of the Monteneros were killed in 1976. The group was overpowered, and its members disappeared from active revolution bringing the uprising to an end.

Although the Montenero qualified as a terror group by creating fear among the people especially international citizens whom they kidnapped and executed, the group's impact was short lived as it collapsed after six years only. The regional security was not adversely affected. Also, the guerrilla's tactics were narrow and involved physical means such as bombing and kidnapping which were easy to control by directly targeting the militia group. Overall, the guerrilla group did not cause so much serious security concerns in the region as they targeted government officials and American citizens whom they thought by attacking them would deliver their message against capitalism.

Regimes of Terror

Defining Terror Regimes

A regime is considered a system or a way of management. Regimes of terror are organised crime groups or movements distinguished from traditional terror organisations by some features (Gregg, 2014, p. 37). First, the regimes of terror exist to cause cataclysmic destruction to property, environment, and people with the aim of ending a given generation or regime to usher in another one defined by their preferred ideologies or religion. For example, apocalyptic terrorism is motivated by longings for the coming of messiah that will mark the end of the world. In 1995, a Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo developed a Sarin gas in Tokyo subway with a goal of sparking World War III so that the world could be destroyed (Gregg, 2014, p. 37). Such a regime of terror is different from the traditional terrorist organisations that aimed at bringing perceived change to a nation or changing leadership but not bring the entire world to an end. Instead, the terror regimes can be thought to be irrational groups that employ dangerous means to attack everyone including themselves to end the world.

Also, terror regimes may be seen as groups or movements that emerge with the aim of creating a religious government. For example, the Islamic militant groups that are now spread worldwide are fighting and terrorising citizens in different countries with their ultimate goal being the formation of a government run by sharia law (Gregg, 2014, p. 38). Driven by this goal, the terror regimes will form a military group to actively fight the citizens and the legitimate governments to overpower them and form their preferred ones. Traditionally defined terrorist groups, although attacked citizens and governments, were rarely motivated towards a religious government; rather they mostly aimed at bringing a change to ideologies in the governorship.

The Scope of Terror Regimes

Unlike traditional terrorist organisations, terror regimes are transnational. As seen above, regimes of terror may be systems wired through religion and spread as far as that religion has penetrated the world population. In this manner, terrorist regimes erupt from leaders who have ties to sub-groups in other countries. For example, the Kach terrorist group led by Meir Kahane who was once a United States citizen but migrated to Israel operates from Israel but has sub-groups in Iraq and Iran. These sub-groups have been formed through seminary training offered by the leader (Gregg, 2014, p. 38).

Some terror regimes are not just after creating religious governments but to establish super-states or religious regions. For example, there are currently terror groups that are finding their way to establishing an entity that transcends state borders. A typical one is a pan-Islamic entity under the umbrella of Al-Qaeda. After the Soviet-Afghan War in 1989, the Al-Qaeda group decided to increase their influence worldwide by spreading their jihad ideology through training centres and leadership ties to Muslim countries. This motive was clear after the September 11, 2001 attack in the United States when Osama bin Laden, the then leader of Al-Qaeda, called upon the restoration of Caliphate as the main goal of uniting and protecting Muslim community. Today, there are Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Islamic Maghreb, Arabian Peninsula, Boko Haram in West Africa and Al-Shabaab in Somalia and neighbouring countries among other networks of the group. Another example of transnational terror regimes is the Muslim Brotherhood currently existing in more than seventy countries worldwide. The group is prevalent in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Initially, the group used violence but has over time called for the establishment of a pan-Islamic government which will in turn call for faith and political restoration through service and education to Muslims. However, these groups have been the most violent ones in the recent past contrary to their claim of not using violence. For instance, in 2017, more than 300 people were killed in a bomb and gun attack in Sufi mosque in Egypt (Smith-Spark, 2017). Muslim Brotherhood network was suspected to be masterminds and the executors of the deadly attack as part of their push for Muslim faith restoration and reform.

Tactics Employed By Terror Regimes

Terror regimes are presently more dynamic and employ various tactics to meet their targets. To evade being attacked and being easily cornered by the world anti-terror networks, terrorist regimes have decentralised their operations and networks so that they are so dispersed such that when a sub-group is hit, the remaining ones still thrive. Currently, terror regimes are more reliant on smaller cells inspired by a common ideology but do not rely on central command structure (Bush, 2009, p. 12). Decentralising opera...